A Tree That Might Save Your Life - Maringa Oleifera, or Moringa Oleifera

One of the solutions to many disaster problems may be a tree called a Moringa or a Maringa tree. You can eat most of the tree, either fresh or dried. The leaves are higher protein than milk and they have more vitamins than most vegetables. 

The seeds can be ground up and used to clean dirty water. Not having clean drinking water can cause more deaths than a disaster itself, so Maringa tree seeds can save lives in a disaster.

There is more than one type of Maringa tree. I am aware of at least three types. Only one will clean water. That kind is a Moringa Oleifera. 

Many countries now grow Moringa trees. These trees have already saved countless lives during disasters and in everyday living for poor people.

Moringa trees come from Africa and are a hot weather tree. They are quite hardy and will live in varied climates. 

In colder climates, Moringa trees do not make it through the winter outside. They can be treated as an annual and replanted from seed every year or potted and moved inside.

The problem with potting a Moringa tree is that they grow very fast and very tall. They can grow 15 to 20 feet tall in a year. 

A man on youtube was kind enough to demonstrate how to deal with a potted Moringa tree. He cut his off down to the hard, stiff, woody part and then had two trees. The rooted bottom part of the Moringa tree will grow another top and you can take the cut off top and grow roots on it. He chose to shorten the cut off top part of his tree since the cut off part was long and spindly, before he potted it. He had staked it  for support, before he cut it off originally.

You can dwarf your Moringa tree so that you can leave it inside all the time. Here is a link to an article about dwarfing fruit trees: 
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/create-dwarf-tree-orchard-23420.html

Be sure to look at the links in the above article. It has a lot of links to universities that teach agriculture.  

I have just received my first Maringa seeds from an online order. I got a lot of them and hope to harvest and eat leaves and other parts of the trees. I intend to dwarf my trees and grow them mostly indoors, since they prefer warmth. Since I live in a cold climate, I may take some trees outside during the summer to give them a boost with more sunlight. 

According to the people I got my Maringa oleifera seeds from, once the trees get a woody base on their trunk, they become more hardy and can tolerate some cold. I gather that a hard freeze will kill them, however.

Making powder of the Maringa leaves sounds like a good idea for emergency use. It also sounds like a good idea to keep plenty of Maringa oleifera seeds on hand for emergencies, because of their ability to clean dirty, contaminated water.

You may become healthier if you include Moringa leaves and other parts of the Moringa tree in your diet. They seem fairly easy to grow, so you may enjoy growing them for your own use.